Bruce Pearl still refusing to interview with Auburn officials and legal counsel

USA Today | Nov 23

Bruce Pearl is still refusing to interview with Auburn officials and university legal counsel.

While the Tigers fourth-year head coach said in a media conference Wednesday that’s his staff has done “a lot of things” to resolve the school’s ongoing investigation into the men’s basketball program, sources close to the university president’s office have confirmed he hasn’t done the foremost thing asked of him – interview with university council.

By declining requests to interview with university council and the law firm of Lightfoot, Franklin & White of Birmingham, Auburn officials contend the investigation can not be concluded and also has held up the eligibility reinstatement of inactive players Austin Wiley and Danjel Purifoy.

“If he’s running a clean program and hasn’t done anything wrong, why won’t he talk?” the source told the Montgomery Advertiser on the condition of anonymity. “The responsibility is to the school and a athletics department and not just to a coach and his program.”

Don Jackson, whose law firm The Sports Group is based in Montgomery, contends the situation is much more complicated. Jackson, who has decades of experience representing coaches and players in NCAA eligibility cases, says suggesting that Pearl should talk to university council if he’s not responsible for any of the alleged actions resulting in the arrest and indictment of former assistant coach Chuck Person is disregarding a critical element.